The new-look Powergen Cup is supposed to rekindle stirring Anglo-Welsh rivalries but everyone will be lunging for the off-switch if they are required to sit through many more games as one-sided as this.

From Paul Turner's strangely downbeat team selection to their diffident start in wet conditions, nothing went right for a Dragons side showing seven changes from the one who beat Leicester eight days previously. Before English rugby starts popping too many corks, though, there was little in this comprehensive dragon-slaying to justify hoisting the flag of St George.

Northampton are not the only club looking overseas to strengthen their squad but their league-of-nations recruitment policy has now reached ludicrous proportions. When Sam Harding trotted on for his home league debut he increased their tally of former All Blacks to four; by the end they had also fielded three Irishmen, two Scots, a Welshman, a South African and the French lock David Gérard. Another South African-born prop Pat Barnard will be arriving shortly, although he is English-qualified.

No wonder Turner, the Dragons' head coach, looked so mournful. He has a smaller squad, considerably less money and in terms of winning the all-important collisions, a side who were effectively taking on a tank with a pea-shooter. "We weren't even second best in that area," he sighed, describing the experience as "a huge reality check" for his squad.

With the exception of Michael Owen the Dragons huffed and puffed half-heartedly while Bruce Reihana, Mark Robinson and Carlos Spencer brought the house down by exploiting the donkey work of Selborne Boome and Steve Thompson, deployed at flanker for the third week in a row. Robinson scored a try early in the second half from 50 metres after he and Spencer had contributed to the move which prefaced their second, finished by Jon Clarke.

The Scotland wing Sean Lamont's first try for Northampton opened the scoring which closed when Reihana, as classy as ever, surged over to secure the bonus point which they are hoping will swing Group D. Defeat by seven points or fewer at Leicester in the final game on December 3 would be enough to secure a semi-final place, at which point Northampton would be just two wins away from guaranteed European qualification. Budge Pountney's squad might fancy that particular short-cut.

By then it will be equally interesting to see if anything positive has emerged from English rugby's political soup, stirred expertly by the Northampton chairman Keith Barwell who convened his squad last week to warn that anyone who signed a central contract with the Rugby Football Union would not play for Saints again, and that the RFU will have to locate another way out of the club v country maze.

"We wouldn't sack them because we wouldn't need to," said Barwell. "We will say well done lad, good luck, but you are not going to play for us. We collected £2.2m in season tickets and people want to see our stars play." Until the infighting ceases, the number of Englishmen in the front line will continue to dwindle.